Marjoreece - Date Night

The Morning After

Reece woke up long before Marjorie. He knew he was coping better than he would have a few years back with all the events of yesterday, but he also knew he wasn't coping as well as he could. The difference having Marjorie, Charlotte, Carly, Autumn, and (though he never thought he'd say this), even Mia there for him, was massive to just dealing with everything alone. Also, he probably wouldn't have said anything to Marjorie and Autumn himself if Mia hadn't started talking first, so as much as she'd caused endless problems for him over the years at least she did seem to be slightly in his corner now. Not quite to the extent she was when they were kids, pre Roger, but it was a start. Char seemed to be having a real positive influence on her as well. He was lying there watching Marjorie sleep and thinking about last night. For the first time in their whole relationship, Marjorie had put her foot down and said no sex. At the time, he'd felt rejected and was worried it was because of how he had been earlier in the day. Maybe his reactions had put her off of him. However, she explained that he needed to stop trying to use sex to hide from his feelings. She didn't say it outright, but he knew she was referring to the way he would always divert her attention to something sexual whenever she would mention his mum. As the evening wore on, he was glad she had done that. They may not have been physically intimate, but the level of intimacy between them that night in other ways was incredible. He didn't even realise it was possible to connect to someone like that or to feel that at peace just being with someone. He'd woken up feeling more ready than ever to open up to Marjorie more. Maybe dealing with his issues wasn't such a bad thing.
He looked at the clock and knew he had at least an hour before Marjorie would wake up. He also knew the chances of him going back to sleep were pretty slim.  He led there for a while, watching Marjorie sleep. Because they'd stayed up talking in bed quite late, she'd eventually fallen asleep without taking her glasses off and was still sitting up slightly cuddled into his chest. He couldn't get over how beautiful she looked in that moment just led in his arms asleep. He gently slid out from underneath her without her stirring and sat on the edge of the bed. He carefully pulled a suitcase out from underneath the bed and opened it. In it were hundreds of sketches, a lot of them of Marjorie. Art was another side of him he never shared with anyone. Another thing his dad would bully him for enjoying and being good at when he was young. Autumn was the academic one, apart from when it came to science where Reece excelled, and Reece was the creative and sporty one, although sporty because he had to be, his dad forced him to do every sport available because he was a boy. He was only allowed to give up boxing when he shot up to 6'3 and his dad was worried Reece would be able to stick up for himself and Autumn too well and Roger would come off much worse at Reeces' hands if he picked a fight with one of them.  He'd always been really good at drawing and used to do cartoons and sketches for Autumn as a child of the characters in some of her books or from her favourite TV shows. Or he would draw the characters he created when he would make up stories to tell Autumn when he was trying to distract her from their parents fighting before their mum left or just their dad on a bit of a rampage after they were left alone with him. He'd kept anything he drew now hidden out of habit of having to hide it from his dad. There had been many nights when he'd been here on his own and couldn't sleep he'd get out a pad and pencil and just sketch to pass the time. Since he'd been working at the nursery, a lot of those sketches were of Marjorie. Normally, they were drawn from memory, though. He thought this morning might be a good opportunity to try and draw her from life without her knowing while she was asleep. It was too light outside to stargaze, so this was another way for him to keep calm and help his mind focus on something that soothed him. He sat on the edge of the bed and just let his hand do the work. It all just came so easy to him, especially if he was drawing something relating to something he was interested in or passionate about. Marjorie definitely fitted into that category. He'd never told her, but one of his favourite things to do was just sit and listen to her talk. He could listen to her go on about nothing for hours and still want to hear more. He genuinely just couldn't get enough of her. He was being super critical of himself and his work this morning. Marjorie was just too beautiful. He couldn't do her justice. He'd been so distracted that he hadn't noticed Marjorie wake up. She yawned and sleepily said good morning to him."What are you up to, Mister?" She asked.
In his surprise, he just kicked the case back under the bed and threw the pad he'd been using under there loose. He'd sort it all out in a bit. He bent down  to kiss her good morning before hastily saying he wasn't up to anything and  making his way downstairs to make them both a coffee.
Marjorie looked over at the clock on Reeces side of the bed. The alarm would be going off in 20 minutes, seeing as they were both awake she decided to turn it off. As she leant over, she caught sight of the corner of a pad sticking out from under the bed. She reached down to pick it up to find it was a pencil sketch of her asleep, and a pretty good one at that

She was still staring at it when Reece walked back in with the coffees.
"Fuck!" He said as he spotted it in her hands, "You weren't supposed to see that."
"Reece, this is incredible. Did you do this? When did you do this?"
"Umm, this morning while you were sleeping." He answered awkwardly.
"How long have you been awake? This must have taken ages."
"About 30-40 minutes. It's not very good. It definitely doesn't do you justice."
"Reece, I had no idea you could do this. Why haven't you ever told me?" She reached out and pulled him back to where she was on the bed. He'd been sitting on the edge looking embarrassed, and she really wanted to try and show him he didn't need to be.
"I guess it's just another thing I'm a bit insecure about because dad would bully me for it, same with the whole space thing. I just kept it for me. Well, and Aut when we were kids."
"Is there more? Because I'd love to see them."
Reece looked at Marjorie. He was feeling really unsure about showing her anything else, but he saw the sincerity in her eyes and thought back to how he'd been feeling ready to open up to her more less than an hour ago. He just didn't expect it to be so soon. He sighed and got out of bed, reaching for the case and placing it in between them. He gestured as if to say to her it was OK to go leafing through the contents. Marjorie gasped as she started looking at all the individual sheets of paper and numerous pads filled with images in the case. Loads were clearly Marjorie, rough sketches of her face or full body to highly detailed drawings of just her eyes or her hand tucking her hair behind her ear or resting gently on a knee. Even more of just her mouth, sometimes in a smile, some biting her lip, some even in a bit if a scowl all done from Reeces' memory. Hundreds of mental snapshots he'd taken of her that he later transferred to paper. As she dug further to the bottom, she came across some that were clearly done when he was a child. Work that wasn't quite as skilled or detailed as he hadn't had as much practice. Cartoons of characters from shows and books and sketches of 2 little girls, one clearly younger in glasses and one slightly older. Marjorie knew without even asking that they were Autumn and Mia.
There were even a few in there of a woman she didn't recognise. Looking at the facial features, though, she could see enough similarities to guess that this was his mother. She tactfully didn't draw attention to these pictures as she didn't want to make him feel pressured into something he wasn't ready for as he'd arguably already had his hand forced to show the case to Marjorie anyway. "Why is it, I keep finding things out about you that just keep making you sexier? Didn't even think that was possible." She laughed.
They discussed it all in more depth while drinking their coffees. Marjorie was very complimentary as she was really impressed by Reeces' talent. Reece, a bit more self-deprecating. Eventually Marjorie looked at the clock and knew she would need to get up for work, especially after Autumn's warning last night about not calling in sick.
"Right, as much as I'd love to just stay here indefinitely. I have a nursery to run so I'm going to jump in the shower." She got up and started slowly walking towards the bathroom. Taking her pj's off as she went. By the time Marjorie reached the door, she was completely naked. She turned back to face Reece. "Are you coming?" She said to him with a wink.
He didn't need asking twice....